Chapter Four

Offensive Color

Allen, still trying to digest what had happened earlier, began to try to settle into his new apartment. It wasn't exactly large, but was a rather cozy size—perfect for him. The kitchen seemed to be tucked into a small corner of the living room, which sported little furniture.

At least I have a decent bed to sleep on tonight, though, Allen reminded himself, ashamed that he had been disappointed.

Once he had checked out all of his rooms, tried out the bed (it also wasn't as soft as Allen expected), and inspected the cookware in the kitchen, he decided that he would chance another look around town. Obviously, that man thought he had caught Allen, so he'd stop looking for him, right?

Allen blushed when he realized that he was terribly excited to explore the city. All the small towns he'd been to before paled in comparison to this enormous, bustling community. He was out of the complex in less than a minute, hurrying down the steps that led to the big double doors. At first, he kept glancing around for that man with the Asian sword, but as he got farther and farther away from the apartment he began to feel more secure and stopped checking for the man around every corner.

One thing he noticed was that, unlike small towns, the people here didn't greet you as they passed or mutter an apology if you bumped into them. Allen still did so out of politeness, but as the day wore on and he began to make his way deeper into the city, he stopped greeting people when they made eye contact with him. He would simply give them a small smile, too worn out to do much else.

It's only the first day and the city's already changing me, Allen realized he was growing more and more irritated as he walked further. He stopped and took a deep breath to calm himself before changing directions. He would go see where his school was, since he'd be jumping straight into the system the next day.

He wound his way through the streets through the help of a map he had picked up on his way inside the city—it wasn't exactly updated, since most people used the help of technology to find their way around—but it worked well enough. He was close to the school now. He made his way up to the entrance gates, where he was surprised to see two boys his age standing there in school uniform, talking to each other.

School's out at this time, isn't it? What are they doing here?

He found himself hiding behind another column, eavesdropping, before he knew what he was doing.

"…But even so, I would have never expected to see you here again…" a soft, light voice murmured. Allen's eyebrows drew together, wondering what was going on between these two guys.

"It's been four long years, hasn't it?" a deeper, more masculine voice answered. "I'm taller than you now, if you haven't noticed." Allen could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Eh? No way!"

"You can check if you want, I'm a full couple of centimeters taller than you."

"That's no fair, Nezumi…"

"You should know about genetics and things like this, prodigy. It has nothing to do with being fair or not—and even if you were to say that, I would just say—"

Allen stepped out from the column, snickering the slightest bit. "You two sound like an old married couple!" he laughed, pointing at the two boys. They immediately stopped talking to stare at Allen, who stared back, then choked on his own laughter.

The shorter boy, standing next to the one he had called Nezumi, was staring back at him with deep amber eyes—matched with silky white hair.

"Ah, you—!" Allen cried, gaping at the boy. His own eyes widened, but he didn't seem to be as surprised as Allen.

"You're not Isana…" the boy murmured to himself.

Isana…?

"Wait, are you okay now? You're not hurt?" Allen asked, immediately feeling concern for the boy—taking over his first instinct of being surprised. But the thought lingered in his head—How can this guy look so much like me?

Nezumi turned back to the boy at his side. "You know him, Shion?" he asked.

Shion shook his head. "We haven't met before, no. But he looks like Isana, doesn't he?"

The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes. "Great observation, there."

"Are you okay?" Allen repeated, confused by who this Isana person was.

Shion tipped his head to the side. "I'm fine. Nothing happened. I think I should be asking if you, yourself, are okay, though." He extended his hand toward Allen. "In any case, I'm Shion, and this is Nezumi—"

"Idiot!" Nezumi interrupted him. "Don't give our names out to this guy, what if he's crazy?"

"I'm not crazy!" Allen protested, returning their attention to him. "I'm just confused…you were attacked over by my apartment, weren't you? By a guy with a sword?"

He glanced over at Nezumi, who looked exasperated. "This guy really is whacked. Let's just go talk about this somewhere else, Shion."

"We weren't talking about anything in particular," Shion replied, "and this guy interests me. I mean, he looks like both Isana and I—it's an unnatural phenomenon, Nezumi! When do you meet two other people who look almost exactly like you?" Shion stopped his rambling to take in all of Allen's features. "Besides your scar, um…"

"Allen Walker," he finished.

"Allen," Shion repeated. "That's a nice name. Foreign, right? Nice to meet you, Allen Walker!" He was smiling brightly, and extended his hand again, which Allen gripped graciously. This was the first person in the city who had looked at him with such kind eyes—and he was glad to know that they'd be going to the same school. "Also," Shion added, "don't mind Nezumi, he likes you too."

"Wha—"

"Let's go, Allen, I'll show you around town!" Allen found himself being dragged away by Shion, Nezumi hot on their heels, shouting at the calmly laughing boy tugging him along.

When they reached one of the many shopping centers of the city, about a five minute jog-walk (depending on how you looked at it since they were escaping from Nezumi's wrath) from their school. Nezumi had caught up with them, and Shion stopped and rested his hands on his knees, doubled-over and panting. Allen cocked his head to the side. They hadn't been running for that long or very hard, so why was he out of breath?

By the time Shion had recollected himself, Nezumi was asking Allen about what he was talking about earlier—about Shion getting attacked.

At that, Allen told them the story about his gambling to be able to live in the city, and how the sober man had tried to track him down but found the wrong person. Then he told them about his doubts over whether the man had really been sober or not—and then he had met Shion.

"We look freakishly similar," Allen commented after finishing his story.

Shion nodded. "But we're not the only ones," he added with a warm smile.

Wait…what?

"What?" Allen asked, wide-eyed. What did the kid mean by that?

"There's another boy—Isana Yashiro—who looks like me. And you, for that matter." He sighed. "I really wonder if there's any scientific connection between the three of us…"

"Three?" Allen gasped. "There are three of us?" He was almost too shocked to speak. So did this mean that the boy who had been assaulted was actually this Isana Yashiro person? "Does he go to our school, too?"

"Our school? You're telling me that you are going to West Gakuen* too?" Nezumi interjected, sounding irritated.

What did I do to make him dislike me? Allen wondered, his eyebrows drawing together slightly. But he disregarded the taller boy's negativity when Shion's face immediately warmed into a welcoming smile. "Really? That's good, I'll introduce you to Isana tomorrow," he told him enthusiastically.

Allen grinned and, behind Shion's back, made a face at Nezumi, who glared at him. "Sounds great, Shion. I can't wait to—"

"You!"

Allen jumped, his spine tingling from shock. He spun around to see the very same sober man he had tricked the night before storming up to him, already pulling out his blade. A smirk was firmly planted on his lips, but his eyes reflected nothing but cold menace. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kanda—and you're a dead man."

*I made it "West Gakuen" because of the West Block in No. 6. It doesn't really have anything to do with the West or East or any type of directions…I just wanted to incorporate a little bit of everything from every anime in this crossover. Like the umbrella, Lee-sensei (Kamui, if you didn't pick that up ^^') and now the West Block.

SO. About that ending. I felt like Kanda's line was a bit cheesy but they had to know his name SOMEhow ^^" so I know that was a little OOC. But it's a crossover, so a little OOC is to be expected…err…right?

I feel like some parts of this chapter are a little sketchy, but I'm experimenting on whether I can listen to music and write at the same time or not. So if there are any major issues or concerns, I'll go back and edit the chapter to make it better.

ANOTHER long delay for the chapter, I know! I'm so sorry D: I feel like such an ass for making you guys wait and also for giving you such a messy chapter. I'll do better next time. I promise.

Thank you for your reviews! I really love reading them, and they are the motivation for me to (eventually!) keep returning to my story.

Ja ne~!